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THE CAMPUS : About the Former B. Altman Department Store Building... |
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Was the third home of B. Altman & Co.
Construction began in 1905, and B. Altman & Co. opened their new store in 1906. The Madison Avenue end wasn't added until 1914. Benjamin Altman died in 1914 and never saw the completion of his entire city-block store.
It was the first large-scale department store on Fifth Avenue. The building was designed to blend into the grand residential structures that dominated the area at that time.
The architects were Trowbridge and Livingston, who also designed the St. Regis Hotel (1904), the J.P. Morgan headquarters on Wall Street (1913), and the Hayden Planetarium (1935).
When originally built, a niche occupied by Knoedler art dealers was left in the southwest corner (Fifth Avenue and 34th Street). When Knoedler finally moved in 1910, the corner of the current structure was added.
Went without outside signs for 25 years, perhaps out of deference to high-class residential neighbors
Was built catty-corner to the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
Now stands catty-corner to the Empire State Building
During World War I the company began displaying what may have been the largest American flag ever hung. It measured 100 by 65 feet and covered much of the building's Fifth Avenue front. Made during the Spanish-American War, it was last flown at the end of World War II.
The American Olympic team depicted in the film Chariots of Fire trained on a rooftop running track.
Escalators taken from 1939 World's Fair pavilions were incorporated into the structure.
A miniature community, the store had a seven-bed medical department, staffed by a doctor and two nurses who provided medical care to employees and, on an emergency basis, to customers. There was also a school that offered lessons in the three R's to younger employees and a power plant in the subbasement.
Its powerplant made the building an oasis of electricity during New York's 1965 blackout. People came there seeking refuge from the dark and heat, and Altman's only closed the doors when they felt they had all the "refugees" they could handle. The department store's staff passed around free sandwiches, and people slept in the furniture department, on the floors... wherever they could.
The building received landmark status in 1985.
The building closed in 1989 when B. Altman & Co. went out of business. The Oxford University Press moved into the Madison Avenue side of the building in 1995, and the New York Public Library's Science, Industry, and Business Library, also on the Madison Avenue side, arrived in 1996. In 1999, the building became the new home of the CUNY Graduate Center, which occupies about three-fifths of the building and fronts on Fifth Avenue.
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